12-year old girl explains world debt

And gets it wrong.




A buddy of mine posted this video on facebook and asked for my input.  Here's my response:

It's not surprising to me that a twelve year old gets it so wrong; rather, what is surprising is that she's essentially riffing on the rhetoric of the "very serious people" who run the world these days. That is, her is excuse is that she's a kid. The grownups in charge have no excuse.

All this "fake money" she's talking about isn't fake. It's real. It's how the system creates money. The confusion here, and it's a confusion shared by many, if not most, of the right wing, as well as liberals who haven't studied economics, is the seeming inability to comprehend the concept of a floating currency. People just can't seem to get their arms around money that isn't backed by gold or some other real world valuable item. So she calls real money "fake" because she doesn't understand how it all works. And then she bashes inflation as though it was something to be avoided at all costs, all the time. The reality is that we NEED inflation or the economy can't grow; what's bad is too much inflation, not inflation in itself.

Of course, like I said, she's just a kid. But I can cut through all the jargon and bullshit in just a few sentences. After all, I'm forty five.

The wealthy own and operate the government. Consequently, the government is not allowed to tax the wealthy in any meaningful way for its operating costs, and I'm not talking about frivolous crap, either--I'm talking about important programs that mean the difference between life and death for millions of people. So how does the government make up the difference? It goes hat in hand to those same wealthy people who refuse to pay their fair share, but are perfectly willing, totally happy in fact, to LOAN that same money they owe, for a profit, of course. And that's why we have a national debt problem.

Money that should be coming into government coffers as taxes is instead borrowed, making the rich become ever richer, and everybody else poorer and in debt. It's total bullshit. And people are afraid to call it what it is, a massive ripoff.

ADDING: I do like that she's calling out the banking system for corruption. It is, indeed, extraordinarily corrupt. It's just that I think she's got the essence of it all wrong.

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